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Comment by ndr42 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know if anybody else is so petty like me regarding installing new apps but while I can't say anything about the app itself, I just wanted to know how much it would cost, if it is an subscription and so on.

But it was not possible from the app store page itself. Have a look, how confusing it is:

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@ndr/116483475865871622

It shows a lot of price points from 1€ all up to 45€ without saying if its a subscription or a one-time payment.

Maybe the author should include the pricing clearly somewhere else on the app store page as apple is not able to do so.

edit: spelling

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This is Apple's work - they show all enabled purchases/subscriptions author have enabled for price testing. And once you add one, removing it would mean the user's subscriptions auto-renew would get canceled, so they stay and accumulate.

And there is no way for the app to mark "this is the current pricing".

Does that mean if I subscribed for 22.99€ it would stay that way year after year?

What could be the reason that Apple designed it this way? The only reason I can think of is customer protection (say 1€ a month changes to 100€ a month and you user does not pay attention).

Your question implies someone "designs" things and given the state of the apple app store I'm not sure any form of conscious life is in charge of it

Generally it means that yes, the price will stay as-is. When the developer increases the price (versus introducing a different payment tier), they have two options: either keep all existing subscribers at the current price, or offer them to agree with the price bump (users can decline though). Reducing the price affects all existing users automatically.

The Pedometer functionality is free, and I’ve been using it for many years just because its display is pleasant.

The map tracking features cost $29.95 a year.

When I look at the in app purchase prices on the App Store page, it tells me what they’re for? (1 month vs 1 year). You can usually assume that if you see a different price for the same name item, that it’s a sale price.

Good to know: My screenshot was from the web version of the app store page (see link in my first post), the iOS-version shows month or year as you said.

The premium yearly subscription has 3 price points shown (22.99, 34.99 and 44.99€) - I feel really bad for the developer as their customers are reminded that they have to pay more than others have paid before. I don't get why Apple is showing the old prices.

It’s not that you’re seeing old prices per se, but rather that it’s easier to make two IAP items (one with regular price, one with sale price) than it is to actually change the price of a single IAP. That’s why you see multiple items.

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